Thirty-two years after the discovery and 20 years after the blockbuster movie, the Titanic story is still evolving in unexpected ways and now, National Geographic, from executive producer and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence James Cameron, premieres Titanic: 20 Years Later With James Cameron, examining two decades of new revelations. This one-hour documentary event special commemorates the 20th anniversary of the film “Titanic,” the highest-grossing movie in history until Cameron’s “Avatar,” and a turning point for researchers of the Titanic, inspiring dives to the wreck, a host of books and countless documentaries. Titanic: 20 Years Later With James Cameron debuts globally on Sunday, Nov. 26 at 9/8c on National Geographic in 171 countries and 45 languages.

Titanic: 20 Years Later With James Cameron looks back at all the critical choices made during the film and puts them to the test facing a wealth of new resources — including new underwater footage, computer-generated simulation and scholarly research. Cameron speaks with the descendants of John Jacob Astor, Molly Brown, and Isidor and Ida Straus, bringing renewed awareness to the generations of families impacted by the loss of the Titanic. Taking audiences through his personal journey in making the film, Cameron creates a living history, giving context to the choices he made during production based on the historical facts and science available at the time. Looking through the filter of the film itself, and the choices Cameron made as writer, producer and director, Titanic: 20 Years Later With James Cameron explores the movie through a fresh lens utilizing intelligence compiled over the past 20 years.

To consider the evolution of knowledge since the film was made, Cameron assembles a team of the world’s leading Titanic experts, including National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Robert Ballard, who discovered the Titanic in 1985 and is on camera with Cameron in their first joint interview ever. Also included are Parks Stephenson (historian, documentarian and naval systems engineer), Don Lynch (historian and author) and Ken Marschall (visual historian and world’s foremost creator of Titanic artwork).

Cameron and his team of experts visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, home to a Titanic exhibit that features set pieces from the film and real artifacts from the ocean liner itself, giving audiences a sense of the magnitude of loss felt over 100 years ago. There, Ballard and Cameron discuss the recently declassified information regarding Ballard’s discovery of the Titanic wreckage while on a secret mission for the U.S. Navy. Cameron and his team also explore the accuracy of scenes from the movie compared with the same locales buried in the ocean and the unexpected impact the film had on audiences worldwide.

Cameron’s epic 1997 film “Titanic” won 11 Oscars and grossed more than $2 billion worldwide. Its re-release in 3-D by Cameron in 2012 broke box office records in China, making it — at the time — the biggest opening ever in the country. Mysteries have endured and Cameron, who has made more than 30 dives to explore the Titanic, brings together a team of engineers, naval architects, artists and historians to solve the lingering questions of why and how an “unsinkable” ship sank. This investigation will give an updated interpretation of what happened to the Titanic on April 14, 1912.

In addition to National Geographic’s Titanic: 20 Years Later With James Cameron, book publisher Insight Editions will re-release “Exploring the Deep: The Titanic Expeditions” on Nov. 14. First published in 2013, Cameron’s remarkable account of his pioneering expeditions gives unparalleled insight into his experiences and features a stunning array of imagery, personal dive journals and maps. Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox’s “Titanic” will be back in theaters on Dec. 1 for a limited engagement. Enhanced for the first time in Dolby Vision in 2-D and 3-D, the film will be available exclusively in Dolby Cinema at AMC in over 80 theaters across the country — with 20 screens in 3-D.

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